Date: 2004-01-17 07:23 am (UTC)
jazzfish: Jazz Fish: beret, sunglasses, saxophone (0)
From: [personal profile] jazzfish
1. Fahrenheit was 1724; Celsius / centigrade, 1742.
[source: inventors.about.com]

2. Cecil Adams of The Straight Dope tells this way better than I can. Short version: 212 was wholly arbitrary, 96 was supposed to be human body temperature, and 0 was colder than it gets in Denmark.
[source: The Straight Dope]

3. Because all most of us will ever need is numbers between about -20 and 40 C for weather, or up to around 250 C for cooking, and we may as well use only one or two digits where we can. :)
[Alternately, "Because Americans are stupid gits."]
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jazzfish: Jazz Fish: beret, sunglasses, saxophone (Default)
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Adventures in Mamboland

"Jazz Fish, a saxophone playing wanderer, finds himself in Mamboland at a critical phase in his life." --Howie Green, on his book Jazz Fish Zen

Yeah. That sounds about right.

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